Engaging with Mortality

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

We all complain about the quality of our lives from time to time, some more often than others. It can take a tragedy like the COVID-19 virus to put things into perspective.

Life is for living. Everyone has his or her own perspective on life. We all want different things and that’s how it should be. [Thank goodness we are not a race of clones…yet] Nor should we let some well-meaning person try and live a secondhand life  through us as some parents are inclined to do and are quick to show disappointment if we fail to oblige,

Sometimes, it can take a tragedy to make us realise we should never (as we are sometimes inclined) take anything or anyone for granted. Our ambitions, aspirations, dreams…Yes, these are are ours and ours alone, yet worth so much more with the willing participation and active encouragement of those we care about; even so, not everyone will understand, and it’s down to us to make what we can of it all. So... let’s get on with it, and give it our best shot while we still can.

Now, we can't all be great philosophers, artists poets...but the mere fact that we are human equips us with strengths (and weaknesses) of mind-body-spirit able to pass on at least something of all that to future generations; they may not recall or even be aware of its source in whomsoever, but the sum of its effects on the sum of all those affected comprises a living organism that is who we are, not just who we were though we be dead for decades.

ENGAGING WITH MORTALITY

I observed someone dying

in a busy street.

passers-by looking on,

a Samaritan

working on the heart,

body barely stirring under

beneath a makeshift blanket,

heavens (as if on cue) already

configuring a Plan B

Blue eyes on a cloud

as white as snow,

wondering why the crowd

won’t let go,

wishing it would, yet afraid

it might, and what then

for the poor cloud but to drift

Heaven knows where, lost cause,

no Plan B

Can there really be a place

called Heaven

that will take us in, make pain

go away, humanity

come to its senses, human spirit

letting the world in

instead of blaming the Dodo

for its shortcomings and arguing

for a Plan B?

Parents say this, teachers

say that, while hymns and prayers

are sweet on the ear

but fail to ever make clear

just how affairs of mind-body-spirit

needs must prepare

for a time when even a Dodo

needs must concede to its betters

a Plan B

Snowy cloud called Death

moving on in an ambulance, sirens

shrieking, crowd dispersing,

no one chancing knowing glances

penetrating their defences,

better things to do than engage

with mortality and Dodos...

Besides, come what may, tomorrow

is a Plan B

The sun came out to light up

our world, lusty shouts and smells

from a nearby market

leaving any odour of mortality spent,

calling me back

to lively times with loved ones,

busy chasing dreams,

while saving any cleric-led Heaven

for a Plan B

Now I look to weepy heavens,

and feel humbled so by their tears

on a street tragedy bringing

a lasting epiphany of the kind

any of us can understand,

the better to make the most of life, love,

and nature, each in his or her

own way and good time, assured

of a Plan B

Copyright R. N. Taber 2004; 2019

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears under the title 'An Accidental Life' in The Third Eye by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2004.]